ARTISTS
MAJOR BENTON
My work is primarily about resolution – letting go of the past and moving forward. As a result, art is cathartic for me, and a constant looking within as I seek to know myself better; growing, learning, teaching. I am an artist, not an activist. I don’t have an agenda. Primarily, I have fun and attempt to show the truth as I see it, hopefully enticing a dialogue with the viewer. Others describe me as a storyteller on canvas. contact@reese-benton.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
JILL CALDWELL
Painting captures a frame of time on a canvas. It is a window into the artists internal landscape. Whether abstract or realistic it is all filtered through our individual senses and contains parts of us. Trying to reach the Truth of a piece, the essence in the chaos, is the goal in my painting. What does that all mean? It is difficult to put an intense euphoric challenging feeling into comprehensible words. I should simply say, like life, painting is a journey of distilling what is and what isn't. [SLIDE SHOW]
CINDY DONATELLI
I watch a myriad of spectacles play themselves out daily in the Southwest and Southern California. My camera revels in the rich, passionate, warm color palettes of desert and rock, but it accepts such landscapes as they are now given, overwritten with urban and ex-urban construction. I am deeply committed to the technology and history of the photographic medium and have willingly taken on the big cameras used to carve out Western landscape photography. I shoot exclusively with large format cameras (8X10 primarily), producing agonizingly detailed transparencies and negatives which are drum-scanned and printed onto various fine art papers. While respectful of those who have come before me, there is no nostalgia here as I explore intersections of both subjects and technologies which belong uniquely to our 21st century.
GABRIELLA FIABANE
Art runs in my veins, from my Italian, French and Spanish ancestors to my siblings and our upbringing in Santiago, Chilé, where I was born. Abstract art, in particular, has turned into a language of deeper layers of my being that I can only access (or better said, “it” accesses me), when I let go of my neuroses and let automatism take over. Then, for a moment, I allow myself to be vulnerable and the canvas records this moment. [SLIDE SHOW]
SANDY HOPPER
All of my creations are hand painted using Chinese calligraphy and watercolor brushes. Many of the techniques used in creating a watercolor painting are incorporated in painting on silk. The silk is first washed and carefully stretched. I primarily use American made Jacquard steam set dyes. I love the intensity of color that comes from the steaming process. Because I mix many of my own colors “on the fly” and I blend on the silk itself, no two pieces will ever be just alike. In today's art market of mass production, I feel it is extremely important to offer the art patron the opportunity to own something that is unique and creative. My studio is on the New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails map - a guide to fiber arts venues throughout New Mexico.
www.grasshoppersilk.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
MARY CATHERINE JOHNSON de YARDLEY
I was born in North Carolina with the hillbilly roots of people who make almost everything they need. What compels me to create the whimsical characters and scenes I do is an innate desire for a simple existence – a place where life is good, food grows on trees and animals are members of the family; where not only is life good, but death is not the end and we will always be close to those we love. My one-of-a-kind creations are made with modeling clay, wire, recycled materials and found objects. [SLIDE SHOW]
REGINALD A. LAURENT
My task as an artist is to create something interesting enough to make one think, visually appealing enough to make one’s eyes wander, and significant enough to stand the test of time. Through an incongruous combination of colors and shapes, I create a unified entity that allows for vast interpretation. More than anything, I marvel at what others see in my work. In abstract, there is no right or wrong; just art and many opinions. My art is my passion. Real art, for all people. http://www.yessy.com/laurentoriginals - [SLIDE SHOW]
PAUL A. LEWIS
As a high school student, I took classes from highly talented art teachers who significantly shaped my career. During the summers, I was hired by a sculptor who had set up a small bronze casting foundry. My job included all aspects of foundry work, which sparked my life-long interest in sculpture. In 1985, I established Paul A. Lewis Designs in Santa Fe, a “one-man foundry” that has continued to the present. I am also currently employed at the Allan Houser Foundry and continue to produce my own bronze sculptures, photography and other artistic pursuits. http://www.paulalewisdesigns.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
PAULA LIVINGSTON
Paula was born in Washington state and has made Seattle her home most of the last twenty years. About four years ago she began to step away from her career as a graphic artist to devote most of her time and energy to her true calling, painting. She has studied at the Cornish Institute of Fine Art and the University of California but considers herself largely self taught. She is very drawn to and inspired by the work of William Cumming, Guy Anderson and others from that era of Northwest art. www.livingstonotey.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
ELLIE MARTINSON
I was working as a stain glass designer for a glass studio in Canada when I met my husband, an historian. We traveled for 15 years in Canada and the United States, from sea to shining sea. He did research on Early Man while I took photographs and learned about Artifacts, Beads and Collectibles. After painting, stained glass work and other mediums, I eventually discovered my real passion – Creating Beautiful Jewelry out of "Collectible Beads." My entire life, "I Wished To Be An Artist," and one day I realized, "I Am." [SLIDE SHOW]
JAMES OTEY
Through the medium of cast-paper paintings, James Otey expresses ideas and observations about his life and the world around him. Themes relating to the flow of history, movement, the explicit and the implicit, surface and depth, all inspire his work. His current work uses the flow of lines as a means of stating complex ideas, and color to communicate emotions. This style grew from his deep interest in Mayan, Eqyptian and Aztec bas-relief sculpture, and from modern artists like Rothko, Diebenkorn, Theibaud and Louise Nevelson. He has also incorporated scientific expressions of wind, water, earth and fire. His work expresses his love of the physical and emotional world that we all inhabit together. www.livingstonotey.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
CLAUDIA RICHARDS
I have always had the need to express visually what touches me – to recapture beauty, texture, light, dark and the emotions – my inner and outer landscapes, my experiences and adventures, my thoughts and observations. The many layers in my paintings reflect the many layers of awareness, which is life. Abstraction allows such extravagances, as there is no need for accuracy in reproduction of reality, but rather a capturing of essence of a land, a moment and an insight. Color and gesture, boldness or hesitation, veiling or revealing, are the language of abstraction. And each moment in life holds a painting. www.claudia-richards.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
VIVIEN SEGEL
I am originally from Brazil and have been living in Key West, Florida, for the past sixteen years, a place I now consider home. I developed my techniques mostly by trial and error. In the little corner of my kitchen I sometimes feel like a "mad scientist" experimenting by painting with brushes, fingers, dish sponges and other odd materials. My pieces are generally made up of several layers of paint to form the texture I like. By nature, I am extremely detail oriented, which is sometimes a downside, considering I may work on one piece for months. I am always testing my limits and stretching my abilities, but I see this as a kind of personal self-improvement. [SLIDE SHOW]
STORYPEOPLE
The StoryPeople© creations of Brian Andreas began as wooden sculptures cut or pieced out of recycled barn board, painted with bright colors and hand-stamped with original stories. Reese-Benton Gallery offers the largest selection of StoryPeople sculptures, prints, books and cards in New Mexico. Brian says, "All the storytelling I do is about connecting with our own experiences. . . with our inner lives. The more you discover your own inner stories and piece the fragments together, the more likely you are to achieve a new configuration of meaning. . . or a wiser, more integrated life . . . Art is about sharpening our capacity to feel the world we are part of." www.storypeople.com - [SLIDE SHOW]
